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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Catching Old Shoes : The Dark Side of Cousin Bait

Last year, when I started publishing the cousin bait posts, my hope was that relatives might find the posts through search engines, visit the blog, and make comments on the posts that would lead to further dialogue and sharing of information on mutual relatives.

For the most part, this has happened, and I continue to be blessed by those willing to share. However, there is a dark side to cousin bait. Several months ago, I was contacted by someone who didn't like what they saw on my blog and weren't afraid to let me know that I was wrong. Instead of a great catch, I seem to have caught an old shoe.

I'd like to think I make it clear that the blog is a work-in-progress and I admit up front that my genealogy will contain some errors. I'm always willing to take correction, but I found the tone of this particular commentator to be a bit over the top:

Dear Sir;

I came across
your blog site a few days ago. I clicked in the surname of Finel. I
came to the following web page: http://tjlgenes.blogspot.ca/2012/07/surname-saturday-finel.html
I found that the person named Ahnentafel had posted several blogs.
Most of the stuff he has right. However, his posting # 369 is
totally wrong. Edward Finel never married Sarah Green The birth place,
birth date, death place or date let alone a marriage date have never been
found. If Edward married Sarah Green then why did she keep her maiden
surname when she married Peter Gibbons? Yes there are records of Sarah
with a young child. That child shows up as one of the children with the
children conceived through the marriage of Peter Green. There are a total of
thirteen children in this marriage with Edward Finel included in the whole
family. Peter took the child in but never adopted the child.. My
best guess on the marriage of these two people is around 1750. Their
first child, Elizabeth Gibbons) was born 07 Nov. 1752 in Granville, MA.

There may
have been records at one time about the original Edward Finel but they have
either been lost, misplaced, destroyed by fire or flood I would welcome
any records to prove me wrong or right. Show me the records or sites for them.

To my
knowledge, there are only three remaining direct descendents to the original
Edward Finel. My cousin is the last remaining living Finel. When he
passes so does that line. My son and I are from the original line,
however, my surname was changed for some reason in the early 1800’s to Fennell.
To date it look like my son will be the last to carry on the line of
Finel/Fennell.

There has
been write up that the original Edward Finel came from England.
Again, there aren’t any records to back up this statement. I have
thought that he may have come from Ireland. My thinking is he stayed
with his own religious and ethnic group as did so many of the early settlers in
that period of time. Again, no records to back up that statement either.

What little I
have written in this letter can be easily backed up by the records that are
through many reliable sources.

I tried to
post a blog to some of the things on that blog site but they never showed up.
I did get an acknowledgement that a moderator would have to go over them.
Maybe I am not doing a blog right. I normally don’t post things on any
social media sites. I just don’t think I want my name connected to a
bunch of things that are not consistent.

Thank you for
your time and consideration.

At first glance, the gentleman is trying to point out some erroneous information in one of my blog posts, fair enough. Then, he seems to confuse my blog with some other postings on the internet. He mentioned facts that I hadn't even posted on this blog. I responded to his email asking for more information, hoping to clarify things. When I wrote him for more information, I received a response that seemed to be more of a tease (as in - not going to share information) and a bit of an accusation that I was somehow a 'name gatherer' who wasn't doing any research. The email and my response (in parenthesis) is below :

Hi,

Thank you for
replying to my letter to you. There will be one web site pasted on this letter
that will show at least two postings of Sarah Green being married to Peter
Gibbons. It shows that they have twelve children. I have not found a
direct site yet where the complete family has thirteen children, the thirteenth
child being Edward Finel. I will find that info and forward it to you.

[OK, I’ve seen the actual records from the town showing where
Sarah Green married Peter Gibbons. Not just the website link you sent
below. Look forward to seeing the information you can provide.]

You asked me
which Edward my cousin and myself are related to. Obviously we are both related
to the first Edward. It couldn’t be any other way.

[I only asked to clarify, since we were talking about two
separate Edwards.]

My cousin,
who wishes to remain on the sidelines, has done more research and longer than I
have. We have been working together for about ten years. His
records are very detailed and have copies of documents to back up his research.

[That’s wonderful, and the whole point of doing research is to
share.]

I personally
found a relative in our line that to our knowledge nobody else has found.
The info is there for people to find out like I did. To date, we have not
published or released any of this info to anybody on line. Nobody has
asked us about this person. He was easy to find. Neither one of us have
ever published our findings on line . The research we do is a hobby and
something for our children to have. They might want to know where they
came from someday.

[That is why most of us do this type of research.]

There are two
“gatherers” out there that just harvest names for the sake of doing that.
They do not research anything. I think both my cousin and I were taken in
be these two guys when we first started doing this research. I know I was
taken in by one of them. Their last names are Keener and Koeble. Both of
them have in excess of 20,000 names in their history.

[I’m sorry that you feel you were taken in by someone. Are
you accusing me of being a gatherer? That is not the case. I am
posting what I have ‘warts and all’ hoping that others will correct and add to
it. It’s called sharing. No one owns a family genealogy or the
facts.]

My cousin is
very aware of my first letter to you as well as this one. We will both
make comments under the comments that you left on the original letter I sent
you.

[Look forward to receiving it.]

You stated
that you never mentioned a marriage date of Sarah to Edward, but you did infer
that the two of them were married.

[And you have corrected me, sir, by stating it was an error. ]

There are
records out there where Sarah was “warned out” in two cities in MA. With those
“Warned out’ records it states that she is with a child. These records are easy
to find.

[Again, why are you being so vague? Which towns? I
published what I thought was the correct lineage in order to solicit additions
and corrections, not to be brow-beat.]

27 Oct. 1748

Edward-2
birth

?

Son
born as reported by other researchers haven’t verified yet as to date and
location, they report born in Granville,
Mass. which I doubt very much.

Nov 1748

a Warning **

Shrewsbury,
(Worchester), Mass.

A
Sarah Green, a warning out issued. [book
finding]

9 May 1749

a Warning **

Southborough,
(Worchester), Mass.

A
Sarah Green and child, a warning out issued. [book finding]

7 Nov. 1751

marriage

Hardwick,
(Worcester), Mass.

marriage to PETER GIBBONS
[LDS film
#0873754]

7 Nov. 1752

daughter
birth

Hardwick, Mass.

Elizabeth
Gibbons born [LDS film]

1753

father moves

Hardwick,
(Worcester), Mass.

Sarah
father & mother move to Hardwick [book in LDS library]

The two ** are meant to remind me that this info came from a
microfilm (unfortunately I forgot to write this number down before I sent the
films back) I got from the LDS Churches family history center.

To date we
are waiting for some letters to arrive from the European Continent that my have
some bearing of where the first Edward came from.

[Well, if the 1st Edward isn’t related to the 2nd
Edward (b. 1748), do you know his ancestry?]

Here is the
web site page that will show the marriage of Sarah and Peter. If you click on
her name, it will open up and there is a spot that says “show children”.
Click on that and it will show the twelve children from that marriage.
Again it will not show Edward Finel.

[Since your first email, I have found much of this information
showing Peter and Sarah’s family. Yes, there are many online who have
‘connected’ Sarah Green and Edward Finel without proof. Obviously,
somewhere along the line I received the same information. I posted it to
the web, seeking corrections, which you have provided. ]

No where have
we ever found proof that Edward is her son. We would love to see that document.

Like I
mentioned in the beginning of this letter, you will get some more
detail.

Notice how the email ends? I will get some detail, but nothing is clear as to what that information would contain, other than vague mentions of a 'cousin' who has done all the research. This email was 6 months ago and no other information has been forthcoming from this gentleman.

Am I being hyper-sensitive? Or is this guy an extreme personality who feels somehow offended that an error was made in a family tree posting about one of his great-greats? If that is the case, he must be a real piece of work.

Obviously, I have more research to do on this line and seek out the town records, at least this gentleman gave me a few clues with the boot.